Illusion

Let’s try to deconstruct the term – ‘Illusion’, in a philosophical sense. References to Indian mythology is taken. The term used in Indian scriptures is  - Maya. It is difficult to understand what this term means. Referring to illusion as just ‘false appearances’ doesn’t do much justice to us – and that too in an age where we try to cling fiercely to our thoughts like never before! To tell a normal person that his/her thoughts (and life by extension) are all false is quite frightful or blasphemous. How are we to relate to this concept? And what good does this concept hold for us? I have tried to understand the essence of this concept in following ways:

The basic question to be asked is – how is ‘illusion’ expressed? How can it be explained? We may be able to understand the concept of illusion, if we understand the idea of ‘relative’. Illusion can be seen in the following ways:

1. Scale of existence, life cycle and perception of time – The perception of ‘time’ for a fly, a tree, a human being, a planet, a Sun, a galaxy is different. A fly exists only for a single day (life to death, including pregnancy, offspring, adulthood, retirement and death). We humans exist for maybe 70 years and trees much more than that. The Sun lives for a billion years or so and thus, the rate of forward movement of life for all these life forms is different. Rate of Life movement has a relation with our thoughts and the sense of Time these thoughts generate. Hence, we humans see and feel Time in a different way as compared to others. In other words, Time is perceived relative to the rate of life’s speed. 
2. Same life form but at different stages of life cycle – Our perception of Time is related to our age. We seem to have ‘more’ Time when we are young and have very less Time as we age and reach adulthood. Again, as we age and grow old, our perception of Time again undergoes substantial changes. Each perception of Time is an indication of the nature of our thoughts present at that stage of our life. Thus, Time is perceived relative to the age of Life form. That also goes on to say, one must accept one’s natural pace of going through life. It is also an indication that one generation can’t quite understand another generation completely, since they perceive life on different terms. Climax is achieved when we grow old and perhaps start to realize that the concept of forward Time itself has limitations. Most of our notions about life fall apart in this stage of ripening. Although this is a separate topic, the more we are aware of the relativity of Time, the better we become equipped to witness the twilight years of our lives.
3. Nature of thought – Any thought can be considered absolute OR relative. By this, I mean, thoughts continuously change and so does our perception of life. What we may have believed for some years, we reject after some time. What we felt as nonsense, may become true for us after some time. No one can guarantee our own state of mind as Time goes by. And thus, the life we believe to be true – is only true to the extent of thought itself. Life is therefore regarded as an ‘illusion’ in an absolute sense. Things change, thoughts change, perceptions change. So why cling on? Or is there any point in clinging? And if we develop this understanding of being in some kind of a trance, what we may see? We may experience the phenomenon of ‘Timelessness’ – something beyond the boundaries of Time we ourselves have created. This is the stuff of our Universe.
4. Within one Universe - universe consists of various countless phenomena of various magnitudes and scales and movements occurring simultaneously. If each phenomenon is regarded as an Entity, the nature of Time operating for that given phenomenon will be different. This is in continuation of point (1), but at a universal scale of events. Hence, Time itself is not absolute across the Universe.
5. Multiverse – Quantum mechanics is warming up to the idea (in recent years) of multiple universes existing simultaneously and may have different laws of existence. I was amazed to read that this concept was voiced in Indian mythology (Puranas) about 2000 years ago! (Ref  given by George Mitchell –author of The Hindu Temple). How did people know this back then? I can only guess this answer, but we would be deviating from the main topic, if I give an explanation. Anyway, point (5) can be seen as an expansion of point (4) equal to the number of universes present in a given instant!

Considering above arguments, it makes sense to at least consider the idea of ‘illusion’ acceptable. The tougher task is to agree with this notion and continue to carry on with our lives with full enthusiasm!